[nocar]

Caomhian, what is that bleach made of ?

nocar

[Caoimhan]

From Wikipedia:
"OxiClean is a cleaning product marketed through infomercials as a 'miracle cleanser', ostensibly a miracle 'oxygen' chemical. In reality, it is sodium percarbonate (C2H8Na4O12), a detergent and bleaching agent based on hydrogen peroxide. "

It works really well.

[frankthetank]

i grew with all my clothes being washed with bleach...mom swore by it... i still use it once in awhile....kills anything...me thinks.

[strider3700]

Yesterday I took an old halogen upright lamp in and traded it for a $30 off coupon on a new lamp. This is part of the bc hydro powersmart program. And ways I have a large upright lamp that originally replaced the halogen. It uses a regular bulb so I put a CF bulb in it. It's bright enough and uses 14 watts.

The new lamp is made by a company called LED works. Too bad there are no LED's in it. It is a flourecent bulb that is dimmable. It's usage ranges from 25 watts on lowest to 70 watts on high. It is a bit brighter then my CF lamp but uses almost double the watts at best. The bulbs are also specialized and I wouldn't bother with them if you're on the market. Regular CF just seems like a better deal to me.

On a better note I traded in 2 strings of 5w christmas lights for coupons on new LED lights. three strings of 35 lights use 4 watts of electricity. so in 20 days of constant usage they will cost me about 6 cents to run. I should have measured the usage of the other strings. A hell of a lot more I'm sure.

With all of my christmas lights being LED's even as cheap about electricity as I am I'm not in the least bit worried about running them this year. I shouldn't even notice an increase in the bill.

[PeakOiler]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PeakOiler', ' ')I measured the power usage of my office Dell computer and monitor running Windows2000 with the Kill-A-Watt meter.
There are about 2000 Dell computers at my employer. If we can get all the employees to use the "Power Options" feature (located in the Control Panels) and get all the employees to power down either when they're away from their comp, (like out to lunch), and also get everyone to turn off their PC overnight and over the weekends, we may save the agency a lot of dollars. I hope I get recognized for my energy conservation tip at work.

[Zentric]

You plug a space heater into the wall and it makes heat. One-hundred percent efficient.

But I want more. If I were to use a parabolic electric heater instead, would this throw the heat straight at me, thus keeping me a lot warmer than a space heater, per kW hr?

And would anything work even better than a parabolic unit in terms of putting the electric heat where it's most needed?

[strider3700]

depends. Are you wanting to make the room warm and stay warm or are you wanting to quickly heat just one spot up.

If you want to turn on heat make yourself warm then turn off the heat then parabolics are pretty good.

If you want to make the whole room warm and stay warm then I believe the oil filled heaters use less energy.

I've never seen an actual study comparing electric space heaters though so I could be wrong.

[sjruckle]

Yes, the heater will direct infra-red radiation wherever you point it. I think this is good if you happen to be working in a garage that's cold, and you don't want to have to heat up the entire room in order to keep warm. In bedrooms though, I would go for a space heater.

[gnm]

yup good advice - to heat yourself/immediate area the parabolic is great, for heating the room or for maintaining temp in a room, the oil filled radiator style electric heaters are more efficent.

-G

[Zentric]

It's interesting thinking about the differences between radiative and ambient heat - and between parabolic and space heaters.

This has me thinking. I had recently posted to a thread, contrasting standard fluorescent bulbs with full color spectrum bulbs. Even though the technology is essentially the same no matter which type of bulb you go with, a different distribution of light wavelengths is what makes the full spectrum lights "better" than the standard types.

Maybe the same kind of thinking might apply to various space heaters, where infrared light in a particular band might prove to be more able to penetrate your clothes and be absorbed by your body than infrared light from other parts of the spectrum.

Another potentially useful idea is to put yourself between some hard tile and a parabolic lamp. That way, it is conceivable that this hard tile could serve as a mirror, resulting in both sides of you getting heated up by the infrared radiation.

The upshot is, for people who otherwise cannot afford to heat themselves this winter -- and especially those staying inside a large room or a drafty house -- their best shot might be to point a heat lamp on themselves while they're wedged inside a hard-tiled corner, or something like it.

[dbarberic]

I have several appliances that have phantom loads, but I can not completely cut the electricity off to them, otherwise I will loose settings/memory.

For example, I have two Dish Network satellite TV boxes in my house. Both boxes have memory in them that connect them to satellite and allow them to communicate with the satellite. If the power is cut off for two long then the box has to go through a 5-10 minute process of linking to the satellite and downloading data. Pain in the butt.

I have one television that goes through an auto channel search up to channel 99 when the power is disconnected and the TV loses memory. Takes a few minutes, but another pain to deal with.

Both my VCR, stereo receiver, and other television have feature settings that must be “re set” if the electricity is cut off for to long with them.

For those who have seeked to cut phantom loads at their houses, what have you done about these appliances.

[EnergySpin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dbarberic', 'I') have several appliances that have phantom loads, but I can not completely cut the electricity off to them, otherwise I will loose settings/memory.
For example, I have two Dish Network satellite TV boxes in my house. Both boxes have memory in them that connect them to satellite and allow them to communicate with the satellite. If the power is cut off for two long then the box has to go through a 5-10 minute process of linking to the satellite and downloading data. Pain in the butt.
I have one television that goes through an auto channel search up to channel 99 when the power is disconnected and the TV loses memory. Takes a few minutes, but another pain to deal with.
Both my VCR, stereo receiver, and other television have feature settings that must be “re set” if the electricity is cut off for to long with them.
For those who have seeked to cut phantom loads at their houses, what have you done about these appliances.

[Dukat_Reloaded]

I don't have a problem with phantom loads. I have an alarm clock, microwave doesn't have a clock in it so when it's off it's off. The tv does stay on standby but I hardly use it. What uses the most power is the computer, I have a large 21 inch monitor that when in standby mode still displays a down contrasted image, as I have felt the back of the monitor it's still hot when in standby, the computer itself uses around 200-400 watts depending on it's activity. I use my computer to download movies off the internet so I don't need to waste my time and money at the theature, but the movies are so bad nowadays that I barely can watch more than 15mins until I must turn it off and delete it. Another useful thing with the computer is inside it has 12 & 5 volt rails which are very handy to run some 12 volt appliances and the 5 volt rails can be used to charge mobile phones, they are charged up in 1/4 the time it usually takes with an adaptor. You can almost use your computer for everything. I leave my computer on all the time btw, I only allow the monitor to go into standby after 10minutes, but the computer stays on at 100%. I use my computer as a bed light for my room, in 10 minutes the monitor goes into standby giving me plenty of time to get ready for bed after I have turned off the main light.


BTW, why do you need 2 satalite tv boxes?

[Guest]

Can you see this?: The world's smallest violin: 0=\=+

Did it ever occur to you that "convenience" is often a cost of energy conservation?

I have my TV, VCR, and DVD all plugged into a power strip. When those appliances are not in use, the power strip is off. No phantom loads. I don't care if the digital clock in the VCR has to be reset. Friends ask me why I don't get a satellite dish. Your post has just given me another good reason. Thanks.

Most TV is bad for your eyes (and that always reminds me of a Monty Python cartoon), as well as your brain, and there are better things to do with one's time than to watch the tube imho.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergySpin', '
')I own 2 computers ... one laptop and a desktop .... a cell phone and a PDA. The first do not need to be charged and the cell/PDA need a litl bit of juice once every3- 7 days. Therefore I have no phantom load.

[grabby]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zentric', 'Y')ou plug a space heater into the wall and it makes heat. One-hundred percent efficient.
But I want more. If I were to use a parabolic electric heater instead, would this throw the heat straight at me, thus keeping me a lot warmer than a space heater, per kW hr?
And would anything work even better than a parabolic unit in terms of putting the electric heat where it's most needed?

[strider3700]

Ok I've had this house for 1 year and 2 months now and today I recieved my first electric bill that I can compair against last year.

Dec 2004/Jan 2005 I used 54.35 kwh/day for a total of 3098 kwh in 57 days costing me $218.20
Dec 2005/Jan 2006 I used 33.5 kwh/day for a total of 2077 kwh in 62 days
costing me $142.37
so thats a reduction of 38% for a nice savings of $38/month

The company estimate for my bills according to the company was $234 every 2 months so even my excessive use was lower then the previous owner.

changes that I've made consist of a programmable t-stat, removing that old 1hp pump for a roughy 1/30 hp pump, insulating the fridge, changing every lightbulb to CF, turning off some real problem phantom loads with power bars and generally paying attention to power usage.

Changes I've made that hurt power usage include adding a freezer, and adding a GF that likes the house warmer and uses more hotwater.

It's possible to estimate the pumps usage based on the fact that I had a drop of $25/month once I swapped it out this past summer with all other usage being close to normal.

so all of my other changes probably only comes to $13/month. still it's a start

hydro cost me $894.71 last year with $522 of that coming during the winter months.

The difference between winter with heating and summer with no AC but everything else staying the same was about $25/month This winter with the programmable t-stat I can actually directely measure usage of the heater and It's costing me between $2.50 and $3/week so $10-$12/month I hope to completely remove that next winter with the woodstove being installed soon.

At this point I believe the major load in my house is the hotwater tank. It's probably accounting for $20-$25/month in electricity is my guess.

So I'll be looking into how to cut that back this summer. I'll be trying solar water heating if I get everything else done and I can figure it out.

Anyways just a reminder for everyone to keep working at it. a 38% reduction goes a long way if everyone does it.

[pea-jay]

Anyone know where I can find one of these for home use?



I know they exist, I saw one on Japanese TV on a bit about energy conservation. Searches here have come up empty. Anyone know more about them, what they are called?

[cynthia]

I found plastic strip curtains designed for walk-in refrigerators at Boxer Northwest Co. catalog. They are (also) located in Portland Oregon. www.boxernw.com
You might try Curtis Restaurant Equipment in Springfield Oregon: www.curtisresteq.com
Or Google restaurant supply sources.
cynthia

[DoctorDoom]

I am still on the hunt for how my modest home could possibly be gulping 10kwh / day of juice, and I think I've found the primary culprit - my fridge. According to the kill-a-watt meter it's gulping down over half my daily draw, totalling 2000 kwh / year. That seems like a lot but I don't really know. The fridge isn't really that old (maybe 11 years?). Anyone got any figures I could compare with and/or recommendations for a replacement?